Wary-voter Syndrome Still Afflicting Clinton

Pennsylvania Voters Uneasy About Clinton

April 28, 1992|By DAVID LIGHTMAN; Washington Bureau Chief

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Today's Pennsylvania primary should be providing the script Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton has searched for all year -- a place to win big while stressing November themes in a major Northeastern industrial state.

Instead, the state has looked like a rerun of almost every other major state since the primary season began in February. From the narrow streets of downtown Philadelphia to the hills and valleys that make Pittsburgh an urban roller coaster, Clinton has found people are wary of him.

"He reminds me of the Kennedys, and that's bad. It means he does not seem very honest or moral," said Diane Howrie, a Philadelphia secretary.

"It just doesn't seem like we have a lot to choose from in this election," said Barry Sibe, a printer from Johnstown, in the western part of the state.

The Clinton campaign is counting heavily on Pennsylvania -- as well as the year's final primaries, in New Jersey, Ohio and California June 2 -- to hush doubts about their candidate.

"What he needs to prove is that he can win decisively and get control of the agenda," said Stanley Greenberg, Clinton's Washington- and New Haven-based pollster.

But no one escapes Pennsylvania without slowing down because of a few mountains. Wednesday, Clinton came to Philadelphia, the state's largest city, to deliver a major environmental address, a speech that ignored chief rival Jerry Brown, the former California governor, and ripped President Bush.

But distractions kept surfacing. A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette poll of 887 likely voters conducted April 15-18 found Clinton had fallen behind Bush in a fall matchup. A month earlier, he had been ahead; since then, Clinton had fallen 15 percentage points.

Thursday, Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey criticized Clinton, saying "he's got a tiny fly speck of support," and that unless he could ease people's doubts about his character, the party should look for someone else.

First, he said, look at turnout. If it is very low, "it shows there's no real enthusiasm, even if Clinton wins," Young said.

The other statistic to watch is how inactive candidates, notably former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, fare. Tsongas finished a strong second in New York, and is on the ballot here.

A solid Clinton victory would be considered one in which he pulled 50 percent or more of the vote, something he has rarely done.

It is possible, because Clinton has had a few breaks here. Casey is not considered stunningly popular. Brown's campaign seems virtually to have fallen apart, hurt by voter indifference to his message and a feeling among many he cannot win and should no longer be taken seriously.

And Clinton has won some important endorsements, including much of organized labor and the Philadelphia Democratic organization.

He also has run a quieter campaign and has been free of new revelations about his personal life. Clinton has generally had his own way here, trying to familiarize voters with his background and his record, and engage Bush rather than Brown.

He has run biographical ads explaining his background; over the weekend, he held half-hour television programs in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh detailing his views and taking questions from callers. He held town meetings in which anyone could quiz him on anything.

His appearances in Philadelphia, where he delivered the environmental speech, and in Johnstown, where he held a town forum, showed both the problems and the promise of Clinton's campaign.

He went to Drexel University in Philadelphia Wednesday to offer a detailed plan for making the country more energy-efficient. He criticized Bush for many policies: "President Bush was once a strong supporter of efforts to limit population growth," he said, "and it is shameful that he blocked out contributions to those efforts to appease the anti-choice wing of his party."

The audience, while they applauded many of his lines, was not overwhelmed.

"I haven't heard anything that strikes me as the answer to our problems," said Randy Waterfield, a retired accountant. "He just seems to lack that hard-core ability to get the job done," said Douglas Smith, a Drexel student.

Later that day, Clinton went to Johnstown, a steel town of about 35,000 in the state's western mountains, and the kind of industrial area Democrats need to win to beat Bush in November.

People gathered in the gym at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown for the no-frills event. There were no balloons hanging from the ceiling, no pep bands -- just lots of brown aluminum chairs in a semi-circle and lots of seats on the wooden bleachers.

And lots of skeptical voters. "I want to see if I can be swayed by his magnificent charisma," Eva Wisniewski, a substitute teacher who came early to get a good seat, said sarcastically. "I was pro-Brown, but he has no chance."